#107 – Bathroom Fishroom & Ask For Help

FEAT. RICKY LAI

2 months ago
Transcript
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Speaker A:

Welcome to the aquarium, Guys podcast. Welcome to the podcast, guys. This, just to remind you, is your favorite aquarium podcast that is labeled explicit, even though Apple still wants to put us underneath children and family category. I'm your host, Rob Zolzen.

Speaker C:

I'm Jim Colby.

Speaker D:

And I'm Adam on the Shark.

Speaker A:

Today we are guests to have in the studio once know you just come to hang out. Derek Schumann from Deesfishco. Hello. Hello. You are a special guest, but not the special guest. You're just here to hang out, give commentary when you're not that special. Yeah, you were, but not anymore. All right? You're just what we call the usual at this point. And I would like to introduce a real special guest. But before I do, I'm going to keep you in the background just for a moment to give a little backstory before we introduce you. Ricky, Jimmy, when you were gone, and I think Adam was here when we did this, we were talking about having an aquarium in the shitter, the bathroom, if you will.

Speaker C:

Well, everybody says this show is a shit show, all right?

Speaker A:

So we have to do those things in kind. We have a saltwater aquarium in my house in the shitter. It's just a little like little one. One and a half gallon saltwater aquarium that all it has is little hermit crabs in it and other small sea life crap.

Speaker C:

I thought that was a urinal. I've been peeing that thing for about six months.

Speaker A:

It just adds to the flavor. There's a little bits of a calpa and who knows what else in that nasty, nasty ass thing, but I like sitting in it because there's nothing better than taking a shit looking over at what I like to call like king of the hill cave with the little crabs over there. It makes my shit so much better than just looking on Instagram or something else. It's the one time where I feel like I can leave my phone behind, is taking a shit in that bathroom. Don't look at me like that. You can't tell me that you don't play on your phone when you take a. Wow.

Speaker C:

Anyways. Wow.

Speaker A:

So we were talking about that.

Speaker C:

No, I don't do that.

Speaker A:

This is why we need you here, because this is where conversations go when you're gone, Jimmy. Anyway, so we're talking about that.

Speaker C:

I'm the voice of reason in this whole thing.

Speaker A:

For some reason, we had this brilliant idea that, hey, if you guys are listening and you have an aquarium in your bathroom, why don't you submit us some pictures? And whoever has the best aquarium, we decide for whatever reason that we, like, set up in your bathroom. We'll send out a prize and we got some fun submissions. But nothing came near as close as our guest today, Ricky from SoCal, California. Ricky, it's a pleasure.

Speaker E:

Pleasure to be here, you guys. Honestly, I thought it was going to start out speed running the whole aquarium guys podcast in probably the last five, six months now.

Speaker A:

Speed running, great speed running. I'm so sorry that you have to consume that amount of bs in that little time frame. But, man, I have to tell you that the picture you sent us was impressive. Now we got like, we got to.

Speaker C:

Put that up there.

Speaker A:

Most people put in there like a little beta vase or just a single plant that they maybe threw a snail in and they called it an aquarium at most. We saw two aquariums in a bathroom. You, sir, pimped it out and made an entire fish room out of your bathroom. And not only that, it wasn't like you had some sort of king tut bathroom or some like you broke down a wall and you just kind of had it open. You have what looks like to be an average apartment and still stuffed what all pieces of what I would say good fish room would be into every orifice of that bathroom.

Speaker C:

Do you have to say orifice in the bathroom?

Speaker A:

Yes. There's going to be a lot of puns today. Work with me, Jimmy. Why? Just start the interview. Why?

Speaker E:

First of mean, I live in California, right? And so it's crazy here. You don't really have much space in southern California unless you're living out in, I guess, outside of the LA area. And I'm pretty much straight in Orange county. And so my place, I don't have much space, as you can see. So I basically started it off and it basically just evolved from there and I just kept going. Multiple tank syndrome.

Speaker A:

All right, so you're in Orange county because there's going to be a lot of chain reaction questions, so let's get some of the basis away. Number one, Ricky, how old are you?

Speaker E:

So I'm 35, turning 36 this year.

Speaker A:

Dating married kids.

Speaker E:

I'm single. Dating. All right, basically, I'm not married, but basically that's the only reason why this can happen, right?

Speaker C:

Exactly.

Speaker A:

All right, we're immediately eliminating a ton of questions in chat. No, no one told him for all.

Speaker E:

The single bachelors out there, I was doing it for them, basically.

Speaker A:

Thank you. On, honestly, I saw this, I showed it to my wife, and she immediately said, you.

Speaker C:

She said, is he single?

Speaker A:

She already has chewed my ass so many times for that little one gallon saltwater aquarium in my bathroom now. And then I showed her the picture, but I'm like, but, mom. And she's like, I will divorce you.

Speaker E:

That's hilarious.

Speaker A:

So that's why I'm having this podcast right now. It's like I need more ammunition on my side to make this happen.

Speaker D:

You're not going to get it.

Speaker A:

All right, we don't get to need to get super nosy, but basic premise of profession, because that at least gives us an idea of what type of person would put this in their bathroom.

Speaker E:

Basically, my current job, my current position role is in operations. So I think that's kind of where and operations within manufacturing, basically. And that's pretty cut and dry stuff. Right? It's not really exciting. And I think for me, this is the outlet, the creative outlet that I kind of enjoy in the hobby.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

But that also makes you an expert on fitting a lot of shit into a lot of small areas. You know what I'm saying? So you're efficient. That's where this came out. You took your work home with you, brother.

Speaker E:

It's nice when you can kind of scale your little own home operation for something that it's a side hobby. It's like a side hustle, but it's still really a hobby. You're not really making money. You're just trying to convince yourself that it's worth all the, quote, investment. Right?

Speaker A:

Hold on. Sorry, I'm distracted. The chat has actually gone pretty heavy on this one. I'm going to throw a pleco in my toilet so I'll never have to flush again. Don't do that one.

Speaker D:

Oh, that's from the first one. Remember the first time that we were all on and I said that people always think that plecos eat shit.

Speaker A:

Yeah, just put exactly straight in the toilet. There you go.

Speaker E:

They definitely make a lot of shit.

Speaker A:

Yeah. All right, so you live in Orange county. Cost of living in California, number one is terrible. Orange county has got to be worse. So how many square feet is that bathroom of yours?

Speaker E:

Probably out of 121 40, not very big.

Speaker C:

So ten x 1210 x 14, something like that.

Speaker E:

Yeah, roughly. And then the room that I'm in, which is basically essentially the same size. So when I expanded past my room, I was looking at this bathroom, which was for some reason the same damn size, and I'm like, okay, well, I'm not using all this bathroom space. Might as well put a rack here and throw some fish tanks on it.

Speaker A:

So is that the apartment that you rent is like the room, the restroom, and then there's like a common middle ground you have roommates with?

Speaker C:

Yeah, basically.

Speaker E:

So I'm on the first floor. Obviously, this would be insane to try on the third floor, but basically on the first floor I have full access to the garage. The front I can use, basically water all the plants with my buckets of fish crap. It was kind of nice while I had it running for the last year, but obviously, if you guys check the video out, I'm mentioning I'm moving this month, so scaling it down and kind of figuring things out as we go into the next place. But for here, yeah, it's expensive. And that's pretty much what happened. I scaled beyond my means, so to.

Speaker A:

Speak, and that is a rotten shame. Now, I know we're going to get this question. I'm going to hit it ahead. First, how in the world did you get permission to do this? There's so many people that message us into the podcast saying, one, I'm in an apartment building. They won't even let me have a tank end tank at all. It says right in the lease, no aquariums. How did you get to have your entire bathroom covered in fish tanks?

Speaker E:

So I have the benefit of basically living in an arrangement where the landlord is pretty hands off so much as you're paying rent. And I was kind of like the property boat manager, obviously, right? Operations guy.

Speaker A:

Nice.

Speaker E:

I'm a trustful guy in that regard, and I kind of took care of the place. So it's sort of like out of sight, out of mind. And as long as I'm not causing trouble, no harm, no foul, and realistically, I'm not running up the water. I'm buying row and bringing five gallon, seven gallon bottles of it home. It's just a process, right?

Speaker C:

On Sunday, I was at our local big box store and they had half gallons of fish poop water that they were selling. Professionally labeled, by the way.

Speaker A:

Wait, what? Really? Yep. I mean, we're all about burning bridges here in brand names at the aquarium, guys podcast, thanks to Adam. So what big box store was selling fish poop? Petsmart was selling fish poop water.

Speaker C:

Yep. I was looking at a tank. I looked at purchasing a tank there that was really weird and goofy and stuff because I was going to do something special with it for my grandson. And it was a slanted front tank that I'd never seen before. And anyway, I'm standing there and I'm going through kind of looking at all the new things they have, and I ran into a, looks like about a quart bottle, and it was professionally labeled by somebody and it had fish poop.

Speaker A:

So it wasn't something that they scooped up and made. No, it was like a bottle packaged by a company they put on the shelf. Poop water.

Speaker C:

Yeah. To give to your plants. And that was the selling point.

Speaker A:

Well, shit, I'm kind of in. I feel like we need to buy a bottle for pissy Aquarius and do a segment, don't you?

Speaker C:

Yeah, there's a lot of things come up with the Pissy Aquarius. I was at there, too, and they had a 75 watt heater that looked like it was square and about, I would say, quarter inch thick that I almost purchased just because I wanted to try this piece of shit. It looked like if you took your bill fold and just laid it out, that's what it looked like.

Speaker A:

Jimmy.

Speaker F:

I've tried those.

Speaker A:

Jimmy.

Speaker C:

They work. Yeah.

Speaker A:

Next time we're in the cities, let's meet up with Adam and you.

Speaker C:

I'm not going to jail with you two assholes.

Speaker A:

You, I and Adam go to one of these big box stores and just buy the ridiculous stuff and review it. That's what we need to do.

Speaker C:

I think they should give it to us.

Speaker D:

Well, no, I've decided this. I'm going to purchase it just so that I can legally rip on it.

Speaker A:

He's done his homework. There you go.

Speaker D:

It's like, I am purchasing it. I'm not going to hold these people hostage like some of these other influencer assholes where they're like, give me free shit or I'm going to knock you. No, I'm going to give you an honest opinion. And if I screwed up, then I will let you know. But I will buy shit and I will see if it works like the stupid jackoff.

Speaker C:

Here we go. Hold on.

Speaker A:

Hold your pants, boys.

Speaker F:

Jesus.

Speaker C:

I got to put my seatbelt on. I'm pretty sure none of the name.

Speaker B:

Brands are going to give you anything.

Speaker A:

For free to review anyway.

Speaker E:

Adam.

Speaker A:

Thank you.

Speaker C:

They'll probably give you a ceased and assist, but that's about it.

Speaker D:

No, I'm going to tell them if it works or not. So I do have something to say. The beta food that I was ripping on for Aquion for being too big, that I had to put in a grinder.

Speaker A:

Oh, boy.

Speaker D:

Towards the bottom half of the jar, it actually got to the right size where I could just feed it to the betas because I started just throwing it to cockroaches because I figured they.

Speaker A:

Might as well eat it.

Speaker C:

So you started on the wrong end.

Speaker A:

So we're backpedaling is what we're saying. So half of the product was usable?

Speaker D:

Like a half. But that's a manufacturing or. I worked in manufacturing.

Speaker F:

Somebody up, there's a reason they say you should shake your bag of checks mix before you open it.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker F:

Unsettling may occur.

Speaker D:

Well, how is a little pellet supposed to get above that big shit? That's like the size of a beta.

Speaker A:

No, no.

Speaker E:

I think you should be mad at the marketing people.

Speaker C:

I think she was angry.

Speaker A:

Is Ricky operations at Aquion Manufacturing? Hold on.

Speaker B:

I mean, he did say operations at manufacturing.

Speaker A:

This is true. But I don't think for his sake he should openly admit that if he.

Speaker D:

Oh, that'd be a good idea. Not to mention that, because then I would just go, what the is going on?

Speaker A:

Before we move on, rule of thumb is, Adam, like, you're done peeing, shake it twice. Anything else is playing with it and unnecessary.

Speaker C:

Shake it off.

Speaker A:

Anyways, back to our actual interview. I'm sorry for that unscheduled tantrum. Walk us through the fish room. How many tanks did you actually fit in that place and how long did it take from tank one to where you're at now?

Speaker E:

Yeah. Let's kind of start at the beginning. It was actually less than a year, I'd say. It started basically end of February of last year, and I was influenced by a friend of mine who had a little cube tank. I would basically come by after work and have an old fashioned with him and he had this little shrimp tank going. So it was kind of actually shrimp that got me back into the hobby because I had kept betas some years ago just at work or whatever. Nothing special, but shrimp like at the neos were kind of what blew my mind, because I'm like, wow, I didn't realize shrimp were a thing. And it kind of just snowballed from there. And I just kept. My first tank was a little ten gallon shrimp tank back in probably March. And I had essentially found some decent resellers of some breeders that were getting out of the business and unloading their entire stock for pretty cheap. So I decided at that time, even though I was really new to the hobby, like, let's just do it, it's such a great price. And I was getting all the crazy caradinas, blue bolts, the galaxies, the boas, the crystal reds and all the fancy stuff, right? And I didn't know what the I was doing. And basically that first tank, I had it going for a few months and I just kept going. I kept adding more and one became two. And then suddenly the next thing you knew, I had probably about ten to twelve in my bathroom, and then probably outside in the room here, another about ten as well. So around 20. And then I have the benefit, like I said, of having another off site location where basically another fish room where I have another ten tanks there. So in total, 30 now, 30 total tanks that I eventually scaled up to over the course of a year.

Speaker A:

30 total tanks in a single shitter, single sink, small tub and shower bathroom in a very small apartment, to be fair, and rocked it out to make it actually functional. So you can still use it as a bathroom every day because that is your only bathroom. You don't have like a secondary bathroom you get to use. So you have to figure out how to use it for your hygiene and use it for all your fish resources.

Speaker E:

That's correct, yeah. And I'm pretty neat and tidy. I don't like having a mess of things, even though wiring is going to be a mess, because I have things all hodgepodged everywhere. You can kind of see in the picture there, I have like a random rug in the middle of the place because I'm just hiding a freaking wire that goes and cuts across the room. So as much as it was planned and organized, it was kind of like a chaos to it. And I had to learn a lot because it was sort of my first foray into it and basically just worked with what I had.

Speaker A:

Now, questions on the pictures and you guys that are listening to this podcast go in the show notes, you'll see a link to a YouTube video, and he'll give you a full tour of this bathroom fish room. He'll go through each tank and we're going to ask questions, try to do a audio tour, of course, of this. But the video tour speaks a thousand words that this podcast can do. Check it out. It's in the links, in the description, but also the podcast cover art for this. If you're not looking and you're listening to Spotify whatever player on this, check the podcast cover art that is a picture of him on the shitter next to his fish tanks in his own fish room. So in that cover art, you'll see a stack of buckets. And immediately I got people messaging me asking, what are in those buckets?

Speaker E:

They were a lot of water change buckets and basically water that I would basically treat with ccam prime. So usually the two or three bottom buckets would have water because I would cycle through cutting it with ro from the aquarium store or for the tanks that didn't need ro or such clean water. I would just run these buckets basically. So that's how I did it.

Speaker A:

Another message from chat that I got is, did you actually siphon water directly into the toilet?

Speaker D:

I hope you didn't put your mouth on the end that went the toilet. Did you use that self priming jackoff pump?

Speaker A:

Self prime jackoff pump right in the toilet?

Speaker E:

Yeah, the hoses that I used, I definitely did connect it to the toilet, but I would basically wedge the outlet of the hose underneath the toilet seat and put my foot on it because it could get wilded on you and basically just spill all over the place.

Speaker C:

That happens to me in the bathroom a lot, too.

Speaker E:

You got to aim that sucker right?

Speaker C:

Yeah. Especially when you got maximum flow going.

Speaker E:

On like that on the big hose velocity.

Speaker A:

I never step, really.

Speaker D:

I just unroll.

Speaker A:

Bet. I bet. Cobra boy.

Speaker C:

I just want to know, when you say to your buddies, hey, you want to come over and see my fish? Do you have to clean your toilet first before they come over so you don't gross them out? Because, I mean, I go to Rob's house here and there's swirlies in his bathroom.

Speaker E:

You know, there's times where I try to be decent about it and there's times where they're going to catch me in the middle of just a shit ton of duckweed in that toilet. And people are like, what the is.

Speaker A:

Going on with you? I was just about to ask my wife. I don't even have a fish room in my shitter. And my wife has. I've had more than times that I care to admit that she's chewed my ass because there's duckweed in the toilet. And here's the fun thing for those that are listening, if you have as much duckweed as I deal with when you get duckweed up underneath the rim, duckweed will throw in your shitter and clog up those little spigots and you got to clean it out. So yeah, use the blue toilet bowl cleaner underneath because you'll find Duckweed won't get stuck up underneath.

Speaker C:

Hey, that's a good idea because you'd be the only guy in town selling blue duckweed. That'd be a good money maker. We got the green duckweed here at a dollar 99 a cup.

Speaker A:

And we got the blue soon to.

Speaker C:

Be brown 799 a cup. Yeah, I like that idea.

Speaker D:

Hey, Jimmy.

Speaker C:

Yeah?

Speaker D:

How do you think the plant would do in his bathroom?

Speaker C:

Oh, Adam always refers to this plant that he's got that went through the nuclear holocaust.

Speaker F:

I killed it.

Speaker A:

Did you kill it? Yes.

Speaker D:

Wait, how did you kill it?

Speaker F:

I don't know.

Speaker A:

Derek killed it.

Speaker F:

I don't know if I gave it too much light or what, but it just died off.

Speaker C:

I'm giving you some more Derek needs like a medal.

Speaker A:

Ricky, forgive me for this tangent again.

Speaker E:

Derek has that. What is that plant?

Speaker A:

So the plant we finally, after all this time, since you're getting caught up on the podcast, you've probably heard about the plant enough. The plant we finally identified as some sort of hybrid of a weeping moss. We've been able to freeze it. We've been able to throw it dry in a corner after a year, rehydrate it and grow it. It's been pretty impervious to shits.

Speaker C:

Leave it in a ziploc bag for over a year.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker C:

With a cup of water.

Speaker A:

Derek lives in a town called Frazee, Minnesota. Frazee Minnesota is just one town down from Perham and Perhum. Water is God's gift to aquariums. I for some reason get immaculate growth for anything my Water touches. But I have tested this water. Trust me, it's gross. I get over 0.5 ppm ammonia out the tap. It's nasty, but fantastic for planted stuff. Right? My fish. My planted tanks go to Derek's place and Frazee installed this crazy expensive water treatment facility. And I have no idea how they strip absolutely all substances out. And it's still not ro. It's not ro.

Speaker F:

Not only is it not ro, it'll vary. The ph will vary between 8.4 and 9.5 depending on the time of year they make it.

Speaker A:

It's like they have a facility to turn water into liquid rock, concrete. They turn it into concrete. So anything that you put in there, no additive of the plant or anything, it just suffocates anything in it. It's incredible. It's like a cichlid paradise.

Speaker F:

Only the strongest survive.

Speaker A:

Yes.

Speaker D:

I'm sending him a baggie.

Speaker C:

Oh, no.

Speaker A:

He's taking it. Killed the plant in that water. That's the only substance we've been able to kill it with. Guaranteed.

Speaker D:

It grew in northern Minnesota, Grand Rapids water. It grew in that for years.

Speaker A:

Now, we didn't take the dead plant and bring it back to my place and revive it. No, we didn't. We could try that.

Speaker F:

The scourge.

Speaker A:

Dale puts the scourge. It's the glitter of the aquarium hobby.

Speaker C:

It's the clown puke.

Speaker A:

No, that's duckweed. That's the herpes of the aquarium hobby. Because if that shit gets on you, it ain't leaving.

Speaker F:

I tend to agree with glitter.

Speaker A:

It is glitter.

Speaker F:

If you've had it in your home, your neighbor has it in their house. All of a sudden, pretty soon it's in the mayor's car, and it's just everywhere.

Speaker A:

Right? For those of you who are bad hooker.

Speaker C:

Yeah. If you're dealing with a lot of goddamn duckweed. Last year, I brought in my koi from outside, and I gave them all the duckweed. And they ate it, and they ate it, and they ate it. And I didn't have to even throw anything away. I just fed it to them. And they did very well on it. So if you've got a lot of duckweed, get yourself a koi and throw another tank up and just go ahead and. Duckweed like koi.

Speaker A:

They love them. There we go. Hashtag organic glitter in the Shitter. There's your hashtag for the night, boys. All right, Ricky. Back on track here. Forgive us. I apologize. Help us out. You've lived this a little bit further than any of us here. And honestly, you're making me want to utilize this wasted shitter space. So what is the pros and cons of having something other than us speculating? What's the real pros and cons of having the fish room in the shitter?

Speaker E:

So I would say the Zen and meditation, the vibes I get from my fish bathroom, they're just immaculate. So your wife, she just doesn't understand that when it comes to trying to appreciate that Zen that you're trying to get, I honestly feel like everybody should have at least a tank in their bathroom. I mean, all jokes aside, not even with the rack that I've got going on, I think it's a nice thing. You can definitely do a nice little escape and have something cool going. So everyone just go and put a fish cube in their fish tank in their bathroom.

Speaker A:

Can I make a small tangent with you here, brother? I'm a big fan of Rick and Morty, and immediately when you said this, it popped in my brain. I think it was like season. I looked it up here. Season four, episode two. There's an entire episode of where Rick has this entire, I wouldn't say universe, but entire outdoor amphitheater where it's just this nature scene where he has his shitter in, where it's just this beautiful babbling brook. Animals, birds, and that's like his epic toilet. And immediately, as you're talking about, everybody needs the ambiance and zen of a fish room toilet. That's immediately what hit my brain.

Speaker E:

You don't want to look at some beautiful angel fish or discus or something in your fish bathroom.

Speaker C:

Come on.

Speaker E:

That's like your personal time with your fish. It's the most intimate time you can have with the fish, honestly.

Speaker F:

Rob just looks at a shrimp.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

I love the people that have taken it to a new level where their headboard is an aquarium.

Speaker F:

Yes.

Speaker C:

In their bedroom and stuff. And I saw one that was very well done, and I looked into purchasing it until I saw the price, $8,000.

Speaker F:

It's also a terrifying thought of having that much water above your head.

Speaker C:

Right?

Speaker E:

I don't know about terrifying where I'm going with that. I just kind of concerned California with earthquakes.

Speaker A:

No, we don't have earthquakes here. So that's kind of out on the spec out for us. But I'm always worried that my wife's going to get distracted and she's just going to be looking at the fish while we're trying to screw.

Speaker C:

You know, she's going to go, why is that guppy's dick bigger than yours?

Speaker A:

I'm like, I'm down here. My God, a podium.

Speaker C:

I'm down here.

Speaker E:

Here's the thing. I technically have a 40 gallon breeder at the foot of my bed, like, literally at the foot of my bed. And I kind of had that same experience of having little axolotls staring at us when we're in the bed.

Speaker C:

When is happy time?

Speaker A:

You have got to have the sexiest tinder profile of all time. That's all I'm saying.

Speaker C:

I've got a dog that looks at me.

Speaker A:

Wait, when I'm doing it, you don't have axolotls. You're in California. I didn't hear anything.

Speaker E:

My tiger salamanders.

Speaker A:

Oh, good. All right.

Speaker C:

Yeah. Then you're.

Speaker D:

There's a California tiger salamander. Those are illegal.

Speaker A:

No, no, he's clear. They're the legal ones, right? Wink, wink.

Speaker C:

Okay. Yes. The legal ones right next to your piranha tank, right?

Speaker E:

I rescued.

Speaker A:

He rescued. Rescued. Jimmy, get off his tit.

Speaker C:

That's why I've got an 18 year old asian girl down in my basement. I rescued her from the mall.

Speaker A:

Good.

Speaker C:

Sick bastard. I said, she's 18 years old. So I didn't do anything wrong.

Speaker A:

That's the last time I buy costco lotion for.

Speaker C:

You. Put the lotion in the bucket, buddy.

Speaker A:

Oh, God.

Speaker C:

So I rescued her from the mall.

Speaker E:

Left.

Speaker A:

When I edit this episode, there's nothing left. What? It's just all out of context. It's all tangents. So I got a legitimate question.

Speaker B:

Higher episode.

Speaker A:

Yeah. Derek, please help me.

Speaker F:

So, when you were setting these tanks up, did you go with a traditional.

Speaker C:

Cycle, or were you doing more of.

Speaker F:

An opportunistic ammonia dosing?

Speaker C:

Did you pee in all the tanks?

Speaker E:

Yep.

Speaker C:

That's what he wants to know. Did you pee in the tank?

Speaker E:

Maybe a little splish splash? Not quite, no. I just went about going the way of basically taking the media substrate and sponge filters and all that fun stuff from one tank and moving it on to the next tank and basically just jump starting the cycle in every single tank. And that was pretty effective for me. I didn't have many losses that way.

Speaker C:

So what's the most exotic thing you have in your bathroom? Tanks. I mean, do you have all the basic stuff, or you got something that you're showcasing in there?

Speaker E:

The biggest tank I have in the bathroom is basically a 30 gallon, so there's not much space. I have a nice angel in there, and I do have a lot of different corridors in different tanks. And probably the highest value thing I have would be the equis quarries and the panthanolensis quarries. Now that I think about it, it's some nice quarries.

Speaker C:

Now, when you're in there, go ahead.

Speaker E:

And then I was just going to say on the top tanks, little cube unfiltered tanks, I didn't have to really access those, so I would put little unfiltered pygmy sunfish and stuff like that in those tanks, which did pretty well. So kind of kept it low key with stocking, so to speak, as much as I could.

Speaker C:

So when you're in there doing your thing, like, when I'm at my house doing my thing, my one golden retriever just pushes the door open and comes and sits and stares at me, and it throws me off. Now, do you have a big angel fish that does that? I mean, does he just come and just stare at you when you're doing your business? I mean, I just think that would just be distracting.

Speaker E:

It's more entertaining. My friend wants me to have a good shit.

Speaker C:

I thought maybe he was making fun of how big your thing is.

Speaker A:

See, here's the difference, right? Your dog isn't shitting actively. His fish actively is shitting while he's shitting. It's a bro shit.

Speaker C:

Oh, that's what that is.

Speaker A:

It's a communal shit together.

Speaker C:

Yeah. My dog's just staring at me like I should have a cookie up my ass to pull out for him or something. I don't know. I go, mooser, you got to go.

Speaker E:

Dude.

Speaker A:

He just knows because normally when your pants are off in the other room, there's wet noses somewhere.

Speaker C:

Putting his with the peanut butter, that's a whole different story. We're not talking about.

Speaker A:

All right, all right, moving on.

Speaker C:

You know what?

Speaker D:

Visuals.

Speaker A:

The big ass snails. Is that what you said, Adam?

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

To repeat his question, what are the big ass snails?

Speaker E:

Big ass snails. Is that a question for.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker A:

Yes.

Speaker D:

That you have in your tank.

Speaker E:

Oh, mystery snails. Mystery more.

Speaker D:

They didn't look like mystery snails.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker C:

Are you looking in the tank, or are you looking at his testicles? What are you looking at?

Speaker D:

No, I'm looking in the tank and that one tank that has the three pleco caves in it. I didn't think those were mystery snails.

Speaker A:

For your information on that.

Speaker E:

If it's Cleco caves. Well, I'm not sure which tank you're looking at, but I do have. Basically, the biggest snail is going to be mystery, and then I have a crap ton of ramshorn snails and rabbit snails and stuff like that. But biggest is definitely going to be mystery snail. Okay.

Speaker A:

All right. How often do you do, what activities do you do on the toilet that you can reach? Do you scrub algae? Do you squish snails? Do you feed? I want to know what you do. Pants off on toilet. Like, what activities can you reach? These are important questions. All right. Compared to the shit we've talked about before, I want to know.

Speaker E:

I have actually picked out with a little shrimp net, some dead bodies of the fish in the tanks while I was taking a shit and dropped that fish. Toilet efficiency, right? What's the name of the game here?

Speaker A:

Oh, my God.

Speaker C:

Front or back? Front or back? Are you dropping the shrimp in the back or the front?

Speaker A:

Thank you, Jimmy. That's exactly what I want to know.

Speaker E:

I scoot back and I just make space in the front.

Speaker A:

Yeah, that's where you can aim. You don't want to mysteriously get shit on your net.

Speaker C:

You got a dead shrimp on your tank. You can flick it off.

Speaker A:

Then you can flick it off.

Speaker C:

No, I mean, you don't want it smell like dead fish.

Speaker F:

That smell doesn't go.

Speaker A:

Then he's got the shower close by.

Speaker C:

You don't want to smell like dead fish. I'm just saying, you don't want that.

Speaker E:

He's got old on your back.

Speaker D:

This should not just be in the family section at all. Like, you know, some mob is going to listen to those other kids and go, what the is going on? Can you please put a big disclaimer on this one?

Speaker A:

All of them have it, brother. All of them are labeled explicit, not.

Speaker D:

For, and listened to.

Speaker A:

They're all labeled this.

Speaker B:

We're never getting a sponsor.

Speaker A:

We're good. We are sponsored.

Speaker C:

We will get a sponsor, but it's going to be from Alanon or like.

Speaker A:

Oh, my God, that would be the best, wouldn't it?

Speaker C:

Yeah, that's where we're going to get a sponsor. It's going to be somebody saying, trying.

Speaker A:

To talk us off the ledge or Costco lotion.

Speaker C:

You know, if anybody needs a freaking sponsor, it's Adam. When he goes off on his tirades, get him down off the shelf.

Speaker A:

Ricky, you are the man. I want you to know this. Really? Just for admitting that to the public, right? I mean, you're kind of my Oprah for truthing that out, because not only were you able to be efficient, but you were able to save water by shitting and flushing the shrimp down the toilet at the same time. Right there. That's the bottom line. Guys, quit making fun of him. He saved water.

Speaker F:

Oh, we're not making fun of him.

Speaker A:

Oh, good.

Speaker C:

No, I thought it was interesting. Could you imagine you're working down the plant and you see all these turds go by and they got corn stuck in them, and then you see one with a pleco sticking out of it and going, that's weird. That's weird. I've seen some weird shit. Why is there a seven inch Pleco sticking out of that three inch turd? I don't get it.

Speaker A:

Okay. All right. I'm going to make Ricky feel a little better.

Speaker C:

What, are you going to get him some counseling or what?

Speaker A:

No, I took a shit. No, don't tell us about that. I took a shit, remember? Jimmy. No, I don't remember you taking a jimmy. Remember you brought over those plecos? Yeah, and put them in the tank, and they fought, and one of them died. One of them died. I took a shit, threw it in the toilet, and the dead pleco carcass is right on top of the turd. And guess who forgot to flush? Guess who got a really intimate text message the next morning? How do you forget to flush?

Speaker C:

You're a grown ass man. How do you forget to flush a.

Speaker A:

Full adult bristle nose playco on top of the turd like it was looking at her?

Speaker C:

And you went, you know what? I need a couple of Ritz crackers and some cheese. That would make a delicious sandwich, wouldn't it, Robbie, you f. Ing psycho. God damn it. You are the worst chops. God damn, you're weird. Why don't you just close the microwave door one time? Close the microwave door one time when you're using it, because I think it's taken away all the goddamn good brain cells that are left in your head.

Speaker A:

I didn't do it on purpose. I just tossed it in there and it was laid on the turd.

Speaker C:

You got a beautiful little daughter and wife running around here when they want to see that.

Speaker A:

You know, like, when you have those long turds. No, we don't. Hold on. Do you have, like, the long turds and it kind of arches out of the water? It was right on the arch, apparently.

Speaker C:

Oh, we call that at our house the Nessie, the Loch Ness monster, when it's just kind know, like this here looking at you.

Speaker A:

All right, Ricky, if you don't feel better now, I don't know what the hell to help you.

Speaker E:

I'm in my Zen space, man.

Speaker C:

He is on the crapper right now, taking a dookie, looking at his angel fish. And his angel fish is going, are.

Speaker A:

You really in there right now? Yeah.

Speaker E:

Why not?

Speaker A:

I love you.

Speaker E:

Love it.

Speaker A:

All right, we need to ask some real questions. I've asked too many good ones. All right.

Speaker C:

You have asked shit.

Speaker A:

Okay, we got some real questions from the audience. We got one that, how do you deal with the chemicals in the bathroom, for instance, you shower and you have soap spray from the shower. Are you worried about that getting to your tank? Do you do any precautionary measures?

Speaker E:

It's a great question. And basically, it's never really been an issue because I'm not really using heavy, heavy chemicals if I have to use something. California, bro. But basically, we'll just spray ammonia or the windex or whatever. Onto the rag directly and clean around things. And as long as I don't really go heavy, it's pretty okay.

Speaker A:

I don't know if they meant cleaning material.

Speaker E:

Wipes are pretty good.

Speaker A:

I think they meant like, overspray from your shampoo. I think they're thinking that you're getting violent with herbal essences and you're just going mad in the shower.

Speaker D:

There's a thing called shower curtains.

Speaker C:

Yeah, I've heard about them. Yeah.

Speaker E:

The 29 gallon I have is essentially right next to the shower. And the curtains pretty much do a good job of keeping any moisture and water out. I don't really have problems like that.

Speaker C:

I think the only problem that you would ever have in a bathroom like that is like if somebody's using hairspray and hairspray becomes aerosol through the air and that can get in your tank and stuff. But I think just your natural washing your hands, washing your body and stuff, I don't really see a problem with that.

Speaker F:

It's been a while since you've had young kids, isn't it?

Speaker C:

Right, that's true. Yeah.

Speaker F:

They make a hell of a mess.

Speaker C:

Do they?

Speaker E:

Yes.

Speaker C:

I do use Aquanet when I go to rock concerts. I still use some aquanet to spike my hair up just because it's cool.

Speaker A:

Is that what I smell every time? It's real nostalgic.

Speaker C:

Oh, the smell.

Speaker A:

You smell every time we go to a concert.

Speaker C:

Oh, no, that's my back medicine. That's Ben gay for real.

Speaker A:

It is. Holy shit. That's exactly what I smell when we go to a concert.

Speaker F:

Yeah, it's Ben gay.

Speaker C:

It's all my old friends there.

Speaker A:

Okay. All right. In lieu of actually reading all the questions in the chat that are somewhat valid.

Speaker C:

Somewhat valid.

Speaker A:

Have you actually taken a shit since this podcast started? No, I'm not written. Don't answer that, Ricky. Somebody asked. Don't. Don't answer that.

Speaker E:

I said just before.

Speaker A:

Just before you.

Speaker C:

Wanted to cleanse the soul and the palate for this podcast, because you know it's going to be a blessing, didn't you?

Speaker A:

Clearly, clearly.

Speaker D:

When you move, are you going to be setting up another bathroom, Fish tank room, or are you just getting a bigger room to do this in like an actual fish room?

Speaker E:

It will be a much bigger space, but I wouldn't say it's going to be a dedicated fish room. It's still going to be kind of like a studio, but because now I'm going into a second floor space, it's going to be a little harder to accommodate that. So I'll have to figure some stuff out, but I'll probably scale it down to about half of what I have now, and then go from there, figure out what I really want to keep, and get rid of the rest.

Speaker A:

Well, promise us that you keep us. Yeah. Number one, keep the expensive quarries, my.

Speaker E:

Plecos, all that great stuff.

Speaker C:

Ricky, you said that you have a second location that you can keep fish to.

Speaker E:

Yeah. So I mentioned basically being at work and having the role of operations, and so with that being said, I was able to kind of secure a little bit of storage space at work upstairs and set up a little rack there. So I have a guppy and go on there with about eight tanks, roughly, or six tanks. Sorry, six tanks, and then a few sitting around on the side. So that's kind of my local fish store production, because I have one just down the street from me that I'm really tight with. Shout out to Nolan's Aquarium Co. In Santana.

Speaker A:

Nice.

Speaker C:

So, with your tank there, is that in a common area, or is that just kind of a private area that they don't know about?

Speaker E:

Private space? That's an upstairs storage where most people don't really access in the video, and.

Speaker A:

Forgive me if I caught this wrong, it looks like. And right next to the left of your sink, next to your toothbrush, you have what looks to be like a blender of brine shrimp. Is that correct?

Speaker E:

That is exactly what it is, yes.

Speaker A:

Now, is that something homemade, or did you purchase that?

Speaker E:

That's purchased. Yeah, I got that. That's the zis brine shrimp hatchery. And they actually just released a new model with the longer legs that I think had I gotten into the game later, I would have gotten that one. But this is what I got. It's a little blender, and it works pretty well.

Speaker C:

I think it'd be a good place to put a margarita mixer, too, because you could be in there, maybe put a microwave oven in there. You go in there and take some pizza bites and then have a margarita with a backsplash of shrimp.

Speaker A:

At first glance, alcoholic. At second glance, fish nerd. I love it so much.

Speaker F:

Honestly, I'm kind of envious of that set up.

Speaker A:

Yes.

Speaker F:

I wish my bathroom was large enough. I could even have one tank in it.

Speaker A:

So, like you said, now that you know that this particular model came out a different one that's a little taller, you do that differently. What other things? Now that you've lived this a little bit, what would you have done differently had you done this exact same space.

Speaker E:

Again, honestly, I learned about the automatic water changes and other things like that, which are kind of difficult to do when you're a renter. So that's kind of out of the picture. But I've seen some interesting setups that would make basically breeding tanks a lot easier with the water changes. The way that I've set it up and the way it is now, it's easy to break down, which is great. But I think that's what I would do again if I was staying in this location and basically really rooting into it, making this my dedicated fisherman.

Speaker A:

Anything else? Any particular choices of fish? Anything that worked well as far as stands go?

Speaker E:

With regard to the stand, I think it worked out for me. They were just some basic, like, Home Depot style hdx metal wire racking solutions that it's not even that expensive, but because my tanks weren't that big, it worked out. But if I could do it all over again, I think I would be more focused on my fish operation. Instead of wanting to try a little bit of everything. I think I've gone past that. I enjoyed that, and I want to try a lot of stuff in the first real year in the hobby. But most likely, I would just kind of stick to plecos quarries and really just try to farm out a few things and make the most out of the setup instead of hodgepodge of stuff, which is kind of what I did do initially.

Speaker A:

All right, going off of the questions again by chat. Question, will all your future bathrooms at least have one tank in it going forward?

Speaker E:

Yes, that's a given. I already have that planned out at my next place.

Speaker F:

And question number two, have you bred fish in your bathroom?

Speaker E:

I have. That's one of the things I actually enjoy doing when I'm sitting there taking a shit, is I look at my little fish that I've bred, and I get to see the life unfold before my eyes. The majestic wonder of the aquarium.

Speaker C:

That must be very beautiful.

Speaker E:

It's actually really tranquil to watch a little epistle. Nishanai female basically float around with her kids and do her little dance. And, well, when she had her husband, they would guard the kids from the quarries, and just watching that whole ecosystem play out, it was really enjoyable.

Speaker C:

What do you think that this baby shrimp would tell us on this podcast about his first year of life, where he sat there, watch this guy take a dump in front of him every freaking day?

Speaker A:

This little shrimp would be called, hey, he was horrible.

Speaker C:

That'd be kind of fun.

Speaker E:

I think they would enjoy it. They're bottom feeders too, right? Basically eating. Basically eating shit down in the sea, wherever they are.

Speaker C:

We should get that shrimp on.

Speaker A:

Thank you, Jimmy, for the perspective. All right, so before we get too much further, Ricky, do you have any other points that we missed today that is glaring? Obvious? Besides, they should definitely watch the YouTube video and follow that.

Speaker E:

I would say take time to kind of realign and configure your fish room if you're not feeling like you're getting the most use out of it. And what I mean by that is, if you're spending too much time in it and you're not able to do your water changes and your feedings and other things, find a way to just get that done faster so you can spend more time enjoying watching the fish. I guess that's what I would go with.

Speaker A:

Perfect. Find more ways. Even if it is on the shitter that you're in front of your tank, if it's in the office, if it's next to you in the living room, find more ways that you're in front of it. Even if it's pinching off a loaf, boys.

Speaker F:

It's the perfect place to think of those.

Speaker A:

You're thinking square.

Speaker D:

So, Jimmy, are you prepared for when Rob has to move into your place because his wife kicked him out? Because he started putting fish tanks in.

Speaker A:

The know we've got one of those.

Speaker C:

Electronic locks and I'll just change the code and Rob's can live out in the front yard or something. I'm one of those guys that's got the same code to his garage that the UPS guy's got, that Fedex has got, that my kids have got, that Robbie's got, that Derek's got and stuff. So if there's anything missing out of my house, I'd never known. But if I came home and I found a freaking Pleco and it's hurt, I know Robbie had stopped over, especially.

Speaker A:

If it's a dried pleco. On a crusty turd.

Speaker C:

On a crusty turd. So, with that said, I'm going to run to the grocery store, pick up some crackers and cheese just in case you want to make a sandwich. A chit sandwich.

Speaker A:

And one last shout out. You had your buddy in the location by you if you wanted to give one more shout out to your friend.

Speaker E:

Yeah, shout out to Nolan's Aquarium out in Santa Ana. Again, really good shop. A lot of people would say that they're a really good crew of guys, so shout them out and definitely come.

Speaker A:

Check out the store, Nolansaquarium Co. Check it out.

Speaker C:

SAP out there and tell them you want 50% off from Aquarium guys. They probably won't give it to you, but you just ask.

Speaker A:

No, it's reasonable. All right, 10% off of something at checkout when you mention that you took a shit watching an aquarium. So there you go. Maybe they'll honor it. We have no idea.

Speaker C:

We have no idea.

Speaker E:

I think he would. Oh good.

Speaker A:

I hope so. I hope so.

Speaker B:

Hey there, listeners. One of the best parts of creating this podcast is getting to connect with all of you. If you've been loving the content and are craving more, we'd like to invite you to become a premium member of our podcast family. By joining, you'll unlock a treasure trove of bonus content. We're talking extended episodes, behind the scenes peaks, and special episodes that only our members get to hear. Now here's the best part. You can join us through Discord or Patreon, but we've got a little insider tip for you. If you join us through Discord, you'll get the same fantastic benefits, but at a lower cost. That's because while we love Patreon, they do take a larger percentage of the donations. So by joining through Discord, you're not only getting a better deal, but you're also ensuring more of your support goes directly towards making the podcast even better. No matter how you choose to join, your support means the world to us. It helps us keep the lights on and continue bringing you the content you love. If you're unable to subscribe at this time, please still consider joining the Aquarium guys Discord server and become a part of our very active, helpful, entertaining, and inspiring discord community of more than a thousand listeners. So what are you waiting for? Click the link in the episode description to join our discord community or our patreon, and please consider subscribing to support the podcast. But remember, Discord is the way to go for that extra savings. Thank you for listening and considering supporting us. Your help allows us to grow and create even more amazing content for you. Now back to the show.

Speaker A:

All right, before we enter the podcast, we are going to read some of the questions that we get here in Discord. And there's a channel that we have called ask for help. In here, people can ask all different types of questions, post pictures, and they can get near instantaneous answers. Actually has been really good by our community. So let's see what the hive mind have been asking, shall we? First one, what killed all my plants? Kelpfly wants to know I planted a new tank before leaving about a month. I intended to let it cycle and grow a while while I was gone and came back to almost everything dead. Anyone know what could have happened? The plant sat in an acclimation tank for about a week before being planted and showed no major signs of decline during that period. The tank was af natural substrate with some red iron rich clay clumps in it, capped with sand. I also added some driftwood, which I foolishly forgot to soak beforehand so it had to be weighed down to stay in place. I used dive weights for that. The plant's demise was a bit slow as I got an updated photo a week after planting that showed some wilting and melting, but nothing like the destruction that I came back to. It seemed as though the final decline happened quickly. I had two grow lights on them so I should have had plenty of light, hopefully not too much, and ran a test for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites which all read low. Initially I thought I might had leftover sea salt on the weights from the dive that I did from the salinity. I ran a test and that seemed too low to be concerning. 00:44 ppt. Dissolved oxygen seemed okay. 9.61 mg over liter. Could the lead from the weights be leaching into the water and killed them? But it had been too much light. Is there any other suggestions? So I see pictures here and from the pictures we have planted tank and we have brownie, brownie, brownie.

Speaker F:

Shitty tank. The brown diatom algae will absolutely do that.

Speaker D:

Yeah, that's too much phosphates in the water.

Speaker F:

Free silicates too.

Speaker A:

Silicates, phosphates. We got a little bit of a whole new tank syndrome with holy crap. From the sand. Some of the survivors.

Speaker F:

That's just new tank syndrome for sure.

Speaker A:

Quarantine tank. I'm looking to see what people put here. Mine started to melt. People are just asking supplemental questions. Best question I found here. Where does your water source come from? It's just the tap. The ph is 8.6. A. Water is normally pretty hard. Root tabs in the sand. No root tabs, just clay balls.

Speaker F:

Dirt underneath though.

Speaker A:

Dirt underneath though. Did your nitrate hit zero? It wasn't zero, but pretty low. Around ten ppm tldr. They melted because they underwent some deficiency. Nitrate is fine, so yeah, deficiency. The whole thing crashed and then it was finally overtaken by the wonderful goo, brown goo that surrounded the tank, cutting off the rest of the light supply.

Speaker F:

I've noticed when you have that brown diatom, if it gets on the leaves of any of the plants those leaves don't have. They don't stand a chance.

Speaker C:

Just chokes them out.

Speaker A:

So you had a crash while you were gone. The diatoms took over.

Speaker C:

The other thing, too. You might want to ask is if you're using dirt underneath the substrate and stuff was, where did you source that dirt from? I did have somebody who I talked to who had went home, bought freaking potting soil. And it was the stuff that had the miracle grow crap in it. And that will totally tear your ass apart. Yes.

Speaker F:

That'll nuke a tank.

Speaker A:

Next one. Battery powered everything. So I don't get power outages very often where I live, but we potentially have one coming. I was wondering if anyone had links to a battery powered air pump or generators that I can use for heaters and lights and such. For those who are listening. Jimmy, I just tried something this last summer that was just the tits. Do you remember the brand of that one? It was sun.

Speaker C:

Suncoast.

Speaker A:

Suncoast.

Speaker C:

Suncoast. I just used it last week when I called Rob's.

Speaker A:

Was it Sunco or Suncoast Coast?

Speaker C:

I called Robbie because we were getting alerts. My wife was getting alerts on her phone saying that we did not have power at the house. Now, last week was the coldest week we've had here in a year, and it was 1516 below. And my main concern was not that the house was going to get cold because I knew the power would come on pretty quick. But I was worried about all my fish. When I went home, I grabbed my suncoast and plugged it in. And I have one pump that runs all 50 tanks and it ran them for a couple of hours until the power came back on. So it worked just fine.

Speaker A:

You said suncoast, because I'm trying to find the link to provide people.

Speaker C:

There is Suncoast website and we have some other products from Suncoast. We actually have an electric rototiller from Suncoast that works very well. And it just happened that my wife and I were talking about. We went and did a fish show. Rob's with us, Adam was with us. We're in Minneapolis and I wanted to bring a bunch of large goldfish. So I brought my 33 gallon tank from home, my 33 gallon long, and we threw in some large goldfish and sold almost all of them. But we needed some airstones because it was a hot, hot day out there and stuff. And that thing ran airstones all day and was still at three quarters. Can't find it.

Speaker A:

I can't find any website, anything. Are you sure it's suncoast?

Speaker C:

Could be wrong.

Speaker A:

There is Sunco. Could be. I'm going to find it. Give me 1 second Sunco battery backup because I thought this thing was cooler than whatever.

Speaker C:

Yeah, I've still got it in the box because I just took it out of the box and plugged it in and away it went. Sunco.

Speaker E:

Suncoast.

Speaker C:

I'll ask my wife here.

Speaker A:

All right. You text and follow up. But this thing, I mean, I use it. Yeah, for my birthday. We use it for the fish swap. It lasted forever and we put all kinds of load on it. I think we're using it for like three different crock pots plus all kinds of other goodies. It was insane and it lasted forever. Now, will it last you for three weeks? No, but no battery. Thing is, you're just going to need to get through like what, 4 hours, 6 hours after that. I mean, start bike pedaling and making your own power or something.

Speaker F:

That's the hardest part about planning for anything like a power outage is you don't know how long that's going to last if you can get air to the tank. Simple air pump as far as your heat goes, as long as it's not going to be stupid cold and not super long term, just toss a blanket over it.

Speaker A:

Honestly, a thing that I would look for, if you're not just looking for like a battery, something to run and you're just looking for one of those battery powered air pumps is find an air pump that doesn't run continuously but runs in burst. The ones that run in burst last like seven times longer. What I mean in burst is they'll literally. And that just that on and off. Cycling makes that battery last so much longer. So you can make that thing last for a day in some scenarios, depending on the brand.

Speaker F:

The power outage thing is kind of why I like running sponge filters in all my tanks. Because if your power goes out, you can always hook up that battery operated air pump to your sponge filter and still have filtration running.

Speaker A:

And it's going to last longer than the motorized deal for sure. Well, Jimmy looks that up. Let's go to hello once again from Og Bunta. I've asked about Makilli fish on group on Facebook, but no clear answers. What these black spots were on the fish? This is a male that developed black spots early this December. The other killy fish in the tank do not have these. All fish in the tank act very healthy. They eat a lot. So I do wonder if I have some sort of genetic discoloration or sickness. The water temp is 73 degrees fahrenheit. PH is six. I'm wearing shades, but Derek, would you say that that is a bit pale? I would call that guy a bit pale. He is on a little lighter sand.

Speaker F:

And it really depends on the species.

Speaker A:

Let me pull up a normal picture. Hold the phone. There's what they normally look like.

Speaker F:

I mean, that's obviously.

Speaker A:

I always butcher names, so. Gardenieri Killy fish is what we're looking at. And I'm seeing one that is what I would consider pale. I feel like 73 is an acceptable temperature range because these are hardier killy fish. But I still keep them a bit more than that. I go 78 degrees. I know people like to keep killy fish with no heat.

Speaker F:

PH seems a bit low to me.

Speaker A:

Ph. I've had them in all different types of ranges, but it is a bit low. I wouldn't worry about the parameters because your tank does look immaculate. I've seen a couple of those spots in some of mine, but they go away. Those generally look like age spots to me. Either age spots or something that's genetic. When I have those types of killy fish and I've had them for x amount of time they develop those spots, I'll see crinkles in their fin. The next thing I'll also see is more color depletion on their gill plates and I'll see more of those spots developing. But none of that looks anything like. It's not healthy to me. So let's see what the comments say. Doesn't look a particular disease. Majority of spots are genetic, especially acting normal. Just keep an eye on it maybe. Right. Just hang tight. So yeah, everybody's freckles. No one else is saying the same thing. Yeah. The only time I've seen those consistently is age spots. Sun Joe is the battery.

Speaker C:

I was close.

Speaker A:

I'm glad we're there. You can find these on Amazon. Sun Joe 384 wh six amp portable generator battery pack. It's insane. This one is listed on their website for 230 at the time of this recording.

Speaker C:

We picked ours up last summer on sale for 159.

Speaker A:

Yeah, this thing is the best. I recommend it to anybody. You could run the fish store on that for. I'd say a it a half a day.

Speaker F:

How much you picked this up for?

Speaker C:

We paid 159. Last summer. They were running a sale on a bunch of stuff and my wife just happened to see it and she just bought it and it came. I go, what the hell is this? And she goes, we're taking that to the fish show. And the thing is, too, is we're big music nerds and stuff, and so we want to be able to plug our phones in, play some music and stuff while we're at the fish show. But it was so damn busy, we couldn't even listen to music.

Speaker F:

I might have to grab one of those.

Speaker C:

Yeah, it works very well. It actually charges pretty fast. It's got a nice led feature on it where it tells you how much is left. You can plug in your USB ports directly into this thing, and it probably weighs about 15 pounds. And like I said, robbie ran three crock pots. So if you know anything about electricity, anything that draws heat, crock pots are a bitch. Crock pots are a bitch. And it ran his crock pots for.

Speaker A:

His birthday party when I turned them all on. And just at the beginning of warming, it did complain, but it did do. Yeah. Now, next one. Tank cleaning. Hey, Rob's, what product were you talking about in one of your earlier podcasts that you used to clean all those tanks? Cheers, Alex. Barkeeper's Friend or barkeeper's secret. I can never remember the name.

Speaker C:

I think it's barkeeper's friend. It's like a soda can size.

Speaker D:

Yes.

Speaker A:

Friend of powder.

Speaker C:

Abrasive powder. And it will do a great job. It's kind of like. I don't know if you've seen comet in a can. It's kind of the same type of thing. It says very abrasive.

Speaker A:

Now, since I've talked about this, there's multiple versions of Barkeeper's friend. There is the classic barkeeper's friend. That is the can of powder. That is what I recommend for this because it leaves no residue when you use it. You can scrub it, you can rinse it off, and you don't have to worry about it. The soft cleanser, I don't trust. Maybe other people have better luck. I don't want to use it because I don't trust that it won't leave a residue.

Speaker F:

We used it.

Speaker A:

Did you? Okay. Still, I'm old fashioned.

Speaker C:

How does it work?

Speaker A:

I don't trust those new fangled shits. I like the powder.

Speaker F:

Most of the tanks that we were using it on were so etched that it really didn't make a difference, but it didn't cause any harm, so, no.

Speaker A:

Yeah, yours was less cleaning.

Speaker F:

More of the glass was just gone.

Speaker A:

Then there is a new cookware version, and don't use that either. Just use the OG bar keeper's friend.

Speaker C:

Cheap as heck too. What is it, a couple of bucks a can? Buck and a half a can? Now can will last you a lifetime.

Speaker A:

Yeah, now you can get it on Amazon for a two pack of the big cans. For $11 you can get it at your family dollar or whatever is the closest department thingy to you for much cheaper. Okay, next one. To ro or not to ro. My plants don't do very hot and my fish takes ages to grow in my zero gh. I also have twelve kh and 8.4 ph with 500 tds on average. Wow, this is quite the toilet water that we're talking about here. I'm leaning towards an ro system in remineralizing. Does anyone know of good ways to raise the GH without adding more kh or tds? I'm thinking there's none, but I don't know. Oil is live to keep my shrimp and my water is poison for them, so I don't know what that means. Also, I love the first comment, how the do you have zero gh?

Speaker F:

That's what I was wondering.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker F:

Do you have zero gh and your kh and ph are that high?

Speaker A:

The original poster red. Roger, a longtime member of the community, said, my thoughts exactly. It's like I turned light green with one drop. So I'm assuming between zero and one, it never turned orange. Would it work?

Speaker C:

I hate remineralizing. I hate using that stuff. Would it work for him to do half ro and half of his concrete water?

Speaker F:

Not if he has gh. He's going to have zero gh. He'll have zero gh in the end. If you only did one drop and called the test good, I would continue drop putting drops in for your test.

Speaker E:

And see what happens.

Speaker A:

It's still going to show something, fellas. I mean, it's got to be some janky, shitty city shit like crazy.

Speaker E:

That's possible.

Speaker F:

They've just screwed the water our gh is in. I haven't fully tested it out, but it is insane.

Speaker A:

Tap water from the county. So it is processed through something that is screwy water. Yeah. If you're going to continue playing with the water, the recommendation here by the community is salt and calcium. Epsom salt. Don't add it together. Just ro you have shit water. Otherwise, find a buddy and see if he lives close. That finds like a nice well water. See if you can tap some off of him and just steal from him. That'll be so much better than some of the ro stuff that people do.

Speaker F:

If you want a quick and easy to bring your gh up without affecting your kh or ph. We've been using wondershells in the store. They are fantastic.

Speaker A:

Those do a wonderful job. But I mean, you're going to have to keep a bunch on hand. Contact your local fish store, tell them that. Just keep that shit coming. Make sure you have that on hand because you're going to keep buying it.

Speaker F:

Plopping it in there regularly.

Speaker A:

Easily a shell per water change with the shit that you have going on.

Speaker C:

If you have a small tank, and it has to be a small tank, like a ten gallon or something, try buying some spring water from your local grocery store. Not just sealed spring water, not all.

Speaker F:

Spring water is created equally, Though.

Speaker C:

And then test it.

Speaker A:

I was going to say you're going to have to get that dirty shit. You know what I'm saying? You're going to have to go to like that all water that Ron's warehouse spring water. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker C:

But the thing is, don't use distilled, don't use ro straight, but try to some spring water and see. I've had luck with that.

Speaker A:

It's going to be better than what he's got.

Speaker C:

Right.

Speaker A:

You're right.

Speaker F:

The other thing is, are you running a water softener at all? Because that, I would say find a source that doesn't run through.

Speaker A:

He says your water, it's naturally that soft. No softener?

Speaker F:

No softener at all.

Speaker C:

Yes. Must be living.

Speaker A:

I love the answer here. He's like softened tap. Well, what's going on? He's like, yeah, it's tap water from the county. It's naturally that soft. No softener. But it has super high tds and other minerals. So hard. Soft.

Speaker C:

So you're saying medium, like half mass.

Speaker A:

That's like halfway wrecked. I'll take a medium well, please. All right. That's confusing.

Speaker C:

Thanks for that. My head hurts now.

Speaker A:

Thanks for making water more difficult on us. That was beautiful.

Speaker C:

Maybe just take the tank, fill it full of epoxy, put some plastic fish in there and call it good. Right?

Speaker A:

All right, let's let Adam do the next one. Too much light red. Roger again. Says I dyed some aquarium. I dried, died. DIY. DIY must be just missed the space, some aquarium lights and got floodlights for my planted 75. Now I'm experiencing too much light. My plants are growing more horizontally than vertically. Does anyone know anything? I could put over the lights to block out certain percentage of the lights while still letting light through.

Speaker D:

Adam put aluminum foil so that it angles it better.

Speaker A:

I feel like it would just concentrate it more. Reflect it in like a car headlight.

Speaker D:

But okay, fine. If you were to.

Speaker E:

I learned that trick from the grow up.

Speaker A:

Kidding.

Speaker C:

Everything looks bigger in the mirror.

Speaker D:

But I don't know if you can dim those. Does anybody know if you can put dimmers on the expensive ass fish lights?

Speaker A:

Well, if he diy'd it, let's pretend that. Let's give him the option like he's.

Speaker C:

So he did it himself. Go to your local menards and buy a light diffuser. The plastic, it looks like a two foot by four foot sheet. And that will slow down the light quite a bit because I've got that on my discus tank and that works wonders.

Speaker F:

The plastic panels they use for the lights and like the drop ceilings or the tile ceilings.

Speaker C:

Yeah, but it's a solid piece. It's not the egg crate looking stuff. It's a solid piece. It's the ones we use on top of the like Ty and I use on top of the saltwater tanks. And that might slow down some of the light. But I don't know, you probably melt it too.

Speaker A:

That, yes. And they also on Amazon you can find them. They're called light filters and they're rolls. Generally they have them in colors, but you can find just what they call the white versions. And you can find different grades. You can choose the grade you're looking for to stick on your light. If it's truly diY, it's probably going to be something led ish and not too hot. I wouldn't be too afraid to stick it on most lights.

Speaker C:

If you're going to have to spend 30 $40 to try to downgrade your lights, go buy new lights.

Speaker A:

Oh no. This is like a Timu $4 stick on piece of shit from Amazon. I'm Captain use garbage trash for your aquarium. Trust me.

Speaker C:

This okay, Mr. Team, you. Do you want to fix it today or you want to fix it next year? Because this shit's going to take for $4.

Speaker A:

I'll wait six goddamn months.

Speaker E:

That's what I'll do.

Speaker C:

And then buy another $200 worth of fish because you would give them all sunburn.

Speaker A:

I'm the guy that blinds guppy fry. Just because I use an over 5000 lumen flashlight because I didn't want to buy a smaller.

Speaker C:

Why don't you just keep all your guppy fry next to your welding room when you're welding?

Speaker A:

You were saying, Adam.

Speaker D:

So my question is, do the leds put out different wavelengths. Because the whole reason why I don't know if that would work for this, in this case, is if you put those light diffusers on reptile tanks. And for the uv, the uv degrades that plastic so fast, it turns it yellow, and then it just basically turns into a powdery dust within a year or so.

Speaker A:

I'm going to answer this two ways. One, you can answer it for real and scientifically, or two, the mother is diying some shit, right? And he's just trying to make it kind of work. And the motherfucker diying some shit, he really doesn't care.

Speaker C:

You know what? Go out and buy yourself a big pack of 100 count birthday candles and just put 100 birthday candles around the top of your tank and call it good.

Speaker F:

And then you can use the tinfoil.

Speaker C:

That's right. I love it. You know what? You probably can heat up a cake kind of like a jiffy oven, like when you're a kid.

Speaker F:

Your other option would be just toss a ton of floating plants in.

Speaker A:

Now, the real answer is, yeah. If you want to be really scientific about it, yes, you're right, Adam. There's probably some real spectrum issues you're going to have to be concerned about. And you got to get real creative and just go buy a real light that you can trust.

Speaker E:

That's what I said.

Speaker C:

Go spend $30, goddamn it.

Speaker E:

Something we do when we go camping is we'll use that stretchy nylon fabric to cover the windows and prevent mosquitoes and stuff from getting in. And sometimes you might want to consider, if you're going to DIy something, diffuse the light with some fabric.

Speaker F:

That would work.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Now, the only problem I would have with that, because I do like the idea of using going to the thrift store and buying, like, old Lacey panties to cover my DIY lights with.

Speaker C:

Oh, that sounds sexy.

Speaker A:

It does sound pretty hot.

Speaker C:

And put it underneath a really hot light. Smells delicious, right?

Speaker A:

That way I can smell old lady underwear, like crotchety Ben gay going on down there. But the real is getting that cloth wet over time is I would be lazy and I would not change my light panties. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker C:

Kind of like your normal everyday life.

Speaker A:

My wife would be sitting there like, what the are you doing at the washing machine? I'm like, socks and sheep, bitch. Goddamn.

Speaker F:

Washing my panties.

Speaker A:

Washing my panties. He's using led floodlights. If he gets 150 watt replacement led.

Speaker B:

Floodlight, that's a par 38, 5000 kelvin. It'll work fine for his tank.

Speaker C:

That sounds cheap as hell.

Speaker A:

And they're like, $13 a light. That's all he needs.

Speaker C:

Yeah, go to harbor freight. Get yourself.

Speaker A:

Go to harbor freight and fry your fish. You guys are the best. God, I love question day. I love these podcasts so much.

Speaker C:

Yeah, I love all the questions, except, like, where you been? Why are you home so late? Shit like that. I hate that.

Speaker A:

All right, Adam, let's do it. You ready for another one?

Speaker C:

Yeah, give it to Adam.

Speaker A:

All right, og bunta. Hey, guys, got a question. Have a 30 gallon tall had in my garage since summer? Lately, it got cold here in Norway. I have everything in the garage froze. It's a 30 gallon that has some substrate that's still moist and froze, too. The substrate froze rock hard in the middle, which is only, like, two inches from each side of the glass was loose, but the whole bottom was still frozen to the tank. Excuse me. I took out all the substrate after it was warming up slowly in the house, and then filled it halfway with water. It didn't seem to leak. Can I assume it's still safe to use, Adam?

Speaker C:

Go ahead.

Speaker A:

Oh, no, that's actually all you, but.

Speaker D:

I have family in Norway.

Speaker A:

Oh.

Speaker D:

So from what I understood, the tank was empty, correct?

Speaker A:

Tank's empty. He's got wet substrate. That sounds like at least three and a half inches of substrate.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

No, that tank's why.

Speaker A:

What baloney malarkey.

Speaker D:

Okay, yeah, try it.

Speaker A:

Fill it up to the top and.

Speaker D:

Tell me how it is in Norway.

Speaker A:

All right.

Speaker C:

Why is it screwed up?

Speaker A:

Yeah, tell us your hypotheses here.

Speaker D:

My hypotheses is, well, first of all, he probably has malaysian trumpet snails in there, so that probably killed off everything.

Speaker A:

That's what saved his ass right there.

Speaker C:

That's probably why he wasn't still frozen.

Speaker A:

Mts protected the seals.

Speaker D:

My guess would be that the seals were frozen and all that wet substrate, everything froze and busted the silicone on it.

Speaker C:

No, I don't think so, because when things expand, they go to the point of least resistant, and it's going to be pushed up.

Speaker A:

Correct.

Speaker C:

Not out now, because, I mean, I've got tanks right now contract. Right?

Speaker A:

So here's what I answered to this, because I intentionally leave six inches of sand, and I leave it all wet on purpose when I store these tanks, is to protect the bottom seals on purpose. When it's sand and moisture, I leave it in there. The sand acts as an insulating buffer with the water, and when it freezes, it expands up, like Jimmy says, and it protects the seals in all of our horrible, wretched temperatures. Directly outside in my shed.

Speaker C:

Yeah. I was going to say, I've never had a tank that I've had stored not work where it's leaked.

Speaker A:

Now, I have had without substrate, and I put water on the bottom, and it's just water, no substrate with no buffer at all. And that block will shift and refreeze, and then it will not crack the tank, but it will pressure push the seal split. But if I have the sand in there, I don't have a problem. And, I mean, it had to be like a third full before it would ever, quote, unquote, push out the corner of a seal.

Speaker C:

Now, Derek, you've got all kinds of tanks that are stored in a cold area. What have you found thus far?

Speaker F:

I haven't had any issues with it. However, there is that slight risk that there is little leak in the silicone to begin with. And if there's moisture behind the silicone and it freezes, it just makes that leak worse.

Speaker C:

That's a damn good point.

Speaker A:

So here's another guy that messed silicone. Go ahead.

Speaker B:

Silicone remains flexible to at least negative 40 degrees.

Speaker A:

Correct.

Speaker F:

But ice will push it away from the glass.

Speaker C:

Right.

Speaker A:

But if there was moisture intrusion already.

Speaker E:

Then, yeah, it could be an issue. But if there was no issues before.

Speaker C:

That, he should be totally fine.

Speaker A:

If he was moisture intrusion already, it was already screwed.

Speaker C:

I've seen plenty of exotic dancers with lots of silicone that don't leak. So prove me wrong, buddies.

Speaker A:

All right, so here's another guy that actually is in the looks like Norway area, says it's not just safe, actually safer according to his opinion, as well.

Speaker C:

Did you just send that in yourself? No, that was signed by you.

Speaker A:

That is another user here that you can see on the screen here. Jimmy, that's proof.

Speaker C:

Oh, shall I look?

Speaker F:

Everything that was there.

Speaker C:

What did you say?

Speaker D:

Adam, fill up his tank and then put some methylene blue in it to see if it leaks anywhere.

Speaker A:

There you go.

Speaker D:

I want to point out coloring, but methylene blue would be the best way to do it.

Speaker A:

Look at you boys and all the signs.

Speaker C:

I've never used blue. I've always put the tank down on the floor and pissed in it. No, put paper towel underneath it and see where I've got a 55 gallon tank right now that I've got to fix. And I've only had it for, like, two years, but I'm going to get it done. But just a small leak, too. Realistically, it's a 30 gallon tank.

Speaker A:

And replace the thing.

Speaker B:

If you're that worried about it.

Speaker E:

Next.

Speaker D:

Wow.

Speaker C:

He's all about spending money tonight. Hey, you do it yourself. Go out and buy new stuff.

Speaker A:

We're here to bullshit and have fun and talk about Costco lotion.

Speaker C:

The tanks aren't cheap anymore.

Speaker D:

No, they're not.

Speaker A:

Yeah. All right. Ready for the next one, Adam?

Speaker D:

Sure. Where is this at?

Speaker A:

Missing assassin. I'll just say assassin snails. Had two assassin snails. In a ten gallon tank. In a plant quarantine tank. Went on vacation for a couple of weeks. And now they're nowhere to be found.

Speaker C:

They're in the sand.

Speaker A:

There are plenty of feeder snails in there for them to eat. I don't see their shells anywhere. Could they be buried themselves in the substrate to die? Could they still be alive? Thanks for any input. I'm sorry, Adam. This is the easiest question of all time.

Speaker C:

They're having sex in the sand.

Speaker A:

They have sex in the sand?

Speaker C:

Yeah. Next question.

Speaker A:

Assassin snails are built with, you could, say, a snorkel. They love burying themselves completely in sand. And that's where they're the happiest. So you could have a bunch of assassin snails in your tank. Never really know it. And they'll only come out occasionally. For you to really see them if they really want. Especially if there's a lot of food. They'll just be fat, happy. And never come out if they really don't want to. So, enjoy. Next. Hi, it's me again. We have, I'm assuming Tina Marie. It's misspelled with another video. I thought you guys had two dwarf honey gummies. Maybe one with the faint stripe is female. Is this courting or aggression? Here is the video. And again, if you guys want to check out these little videos. Come and go join the Demoatri on discord links in the show notes. So we have a video here of two very bright yellow garamis underneath a plant. And I'm just seeing. Socializing.

Speaker F:

Yeah, I was going to say the one on the right was getting a little gropy there.

Speaker C:

I was going to say he's doing a little sexy dance.

Speaker D:

Yeah, looks like a male and a female.

Speaker C:

Yeah, I never really got a good view of the top dorsal fins and stuff.

Speaker A:

Let's do that one more time. But it's like they're sizing each other up.

Speaker C:

Little kiss.

Speaker F:

Now here he'll go. Grab a feel.

Speaker A:

Every kiss that makes you gay. The feelers copping a feel.

Speaker C:

Excuse me.

Speaker A:

We have a scientific term for those. They're diddlers. I learned that from you, Jimmy.

Speaker C:

Are they diddlers?

Speaker A:

They're diddlers imagine you have to keep.

Speaker C:

Those 500ft away from school, too.

Speaker A:

All right, now we have a result. She says, ooh, I see the reason behind this new activity. And she posted immediately. Hell, that she found a fry.

Speaker C:

There you go.

Speaker E:

Very cool.

Speaker C:

That is cool. Look at all the little fry there on the silicone and up on the glass and stuff.

Speaker A:

Yes, sir.

Speaker C:

So we were right. God, it feels good to be right one time.

Speaker A:

God damn.

Speaker C:

Can somebody call my wife and just let her know we were right?

Speaker A:

It's great when users answer their own question.

Speaker D:

One.

Speaker C:

Jimmy, what's that?

Speaker D:

First wife or second?

Speaker C:

2Nd wife.

Speaker D:

Okay, first wife wouldn't believe you're right even if you told her the hot one.

Speaker A:

Yeah. All right.

Speaker D:

Good thing she doesn't listen to this.

Speaker A:

Oh, she does. So, hi, jen.

Speaker C:

The other day I jumped into my wife's car. First wife. And she's got the hundredth episode when Adam goes off on a tie rant. She goes, have you heard this shit? And I looked at her and went, no, what is it? And she goes, listen, Adam go off. Adam's. No, my wife has known Adam since he was probably 18 years old and stuff. She known 1520 years. And you go, listen to Adam just go off and stuff. Have you heard this? I'm like, yeah, I was on the podcast.

Speaker A:

I was there.

Speaker C:

I was there the whole time. And she looks at me, she goes, well, you know what I meant. No, I don't know what you meant. So listen to that, sweetheart, or next.

Speaker A:

Time you're on the I'm so glad she listens in. Was that the one where I compared.

Speaker D:

Renaming fish with all the needle dick scientists that mothers didn't hug them?

Speaker C:

You were on a tyrant about something. I'm not sure what it was because I was pissing myself listening to it.

Speaker A:

All right, next one. I've been cycling my tank for seven weeks. How long should I do it?

Speaker C:

Tell your legs are.

Speaker A:

Should I do it, in your opinion?

Speaker C:

So somebody has put a tank on the back of a bicycle and parked it in front of their garage. Took a picture.

Speaker A:

Yeah. When he says cycling his tank, God.

Speaker C:

That is a good one. I like that.

Speaker A:

That is great. So he's been bicycling his tank on the back of his bicycle.

Speaker C:

Have you ever seen Jeff Dunham, the ventriloquist? When Walter talking about his wife cycling.

Speaker A:

This one's getting pinned. That post is pinned forever. There you go.

Speaker C:

Perfect.

Speaker A:

Thank you for that one. I love a good troll. Or too. Don't you, boys?

Speaker C:

Yep, a good troll.

Speaker A:

A good troll.

Speaker C:

Let's not talk about first marriages.

Speaker A:

All right. Here's a great one that I want to put out to the public. Any tips? This is from Father Chris. Any tips for cleaning green spot algae? And this is specifically off Anubis, of.

Speaker C:

All things off of plants.

Speaker A:

I posted this as soon as I saw this in discord. I'm like, following. Never had great luck.

Speaker C:

So they're worried about the green algae on their anubis.

Speaker A:

Green spot algae on Anubis, how to get it off.

Speaker C:

I've got that over in my tank in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, at the children's clinic. And the only thing we've had any luck with is a mono shrimp. And they do an okay job, but they never really get it all.

Speaker F:

And they're not great with green spot. They're good with, like, the hair algae.

Speaker A:

They are when you have 300 of them and starve them to death.

Speaker F:

A whole army of them.

Speaker A:

Yeah. When you starve them to death, they do great, don't they, Jimmy?

Speaker F:

Best luck I've had with getting LG off Anubius is give it shade, take it out of the direct line of light in your tank. The LG can't handle the lack of light. The Anubius can.

Speaker C:

Honestly, could you do any sort of chemical dip without hurting the Anubius?

Speaker A:

Hydrogen peroxide? I'll tell you what, you take your expensive Anubius and you dip it and you tell us first.

Speaker D:

I tell you Anubius.

Speaker A:

No. Not cheap anymore.

Speaker C:

No. And it's hard to get.

Speaker E:

No.

Speaker A:

Why?

Speaker C:

What are there, six, seven kinds of Anubius? And I've got an order right now and for 20 of each. And they're saying, I don't know, we can do that. I said maybe two or three kinds, but maybe like ten of each. I'm going, don't bother if I can only get 30 pieces because I'm doing a big project now with some Anubius and stuff, so I'm actually going to change over to a different plant because Anubius is so getting hard to find.

Speaker D:

Why?

Speaker C:

I don't know. Just grow slow and slow growing.

Speaker F:

And YouTube has made it very popular.

Speaker A:

Switch over to boost, like boost of.

Speaker E:

Philandra and those types of things. Crypts. Yeah. One of those new things with aquascaping.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

I'm going to go with some different, smaller crypts and stuff. Yeah.

Speaker A:

I think this is a decent segue. There is a company that we're testing out. I got a few of my fans reaching out about this greenwater Labs company, and I decided, had enough people messaging me saying, hey, you got to try this cool company. They have this cool natural method of controlling algae. It's an algae side that's all natural. Now, us in the aquarium hobby have heard enough snake oil shit over the years, like, I don't know, a cube that you throw in your aquarium and make it so you can never need to change your water again. There's a list of stuff just in the last jackoff pumps, Aqueon jackoff pumps. There's a list of fly by night bullshit that we hear in the Hobby continually. And it's always been like this, that we have the magical mystery products of the day. And hearing something about an algae or an algae control product that's all natural has really, I've never seen anything out there. Any type of quote unquote algae side or algae control product has always been harmful for your tank, removes oxygen from your tank, or has been a toxin of some sort for your aquarium. There's a reason that they're only easier to use in a pond is because you have a massive water, a massive gallon environment for more forgiveness for an algae side. So it pricked my interest. I'm like, hey, I would love to hear more about it. And if it doesn't work out, so be it. We'll move on. We'll say, hey, it didn't work for us. Clear our fingers, mark it off into the laundry list of snake oil products, and move on. So I messaged the company. I said, hey, I've had enough of my users say, I need to try this, that we need to validate it. And the guy was nice enough. The CEO of the company that's been putting this stuff together sent us some product over, said, give it a try. I told him, if we'll give it a try, we'll do some test results in our own environments. Jimmy's got a bottle. I got a bottle, Derek, for the fish store here, he's doing some tests, actually, in new setups, guppy containers.

Speaker F:

I'm out of it now.

Speaker A:

Well, perfect. But you did it side by side tests, so we'll see how it all turns out, and we're going to give it a go.

Speaker C:

I got a ten gallon tank set up right now that's got green hair, algae that is seven, eight inches long. It's a ten gallon tank. You can't even see the fish in there.

Speaker A:

Perfect.

Speaker C:

And that's where I'm going to try it.

Speaker A:

So Jimmy's trying it there. Derek's setting up guppy display tanks where they're brand new setups, and they're mirroring each other. One's the control with no greenwater lab. The other one's with greenwater labs, and he's going to see the difference. And me, I'm going to do the cool syringe tests where if you use like the fluval flourish excel, where you actually would take like that, or hydrogen peroxide and dose it right onto Blackbeard algae and other spots, you could actually spot test, treat different areas of your tank. That's what I'm going to be testing. So we'll try that. And I think I definitely have plenty of green spots on my giant mother Anubis to go off of. So we'll see if this works.

Speaker C:

And didn't you say that Adam was going to try to get this to clear up the know?

Speaker A:

I did make some jokes when we were with them on the phone. I have a CEO of a company on the phone with us, and I'm sitting there like, you know, dan uses melafix on his hair. Is it possible we could use it on his scalp as well to treat the dandruff? And he did not laugh even a little bit and said, do not use it for human use at all. He said, it is a natural product. We do not recommend it for human use. Just like trying to avoid any lawsuits.

Speaker C:

Don't put in your eyes.

Speaker A:

Don't put in your eyes. He's a good guy. He was joking, but he just want to make sure that we were safe and didn't drink it and shit, because he thought that we might be lunatics.

Speaker D:

And he also probably didn't want me to have it because then I'd go on a tirade about it.

Speaker A:

He doesn't know anything about our podcast.

Speaker E:

I think that would be a great one for the pissy Aquarius. I swear to God, I really don't because I have a bottle of this stuff and I've used it and I'm not convinced.

Speaker A:

Oh, you do have it. What a perfect time to talk about this shit. I've heard a lot of mixed results. People that just preach by it and other people that just say it doesn't do shit. So we'll see on our tests and we have picture samples, so before and after. I mean, it's not like we're not going to share our results.

Speaker E:

Awesome.

Speaker C:

So, yeah, if Adam gets cured to herpes, man, look out.

Speaker A:

The point is, if you don't see greenwater labs in the podcast, you know.

Speaker C:

It didn't work out.

Speaker E:

It's worth a shot.

Speaker A:

Yeah, but he doesn't know anything about the podcast. I literally messaged him, nor does he care.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

Said, here's the podcast. You like to listen to an episode. If this works out, I'd love to have you on the podcast and go from there. Yeah.

Speaker C:

Got time for one more, or you?

Speaker A:

Well, one more. One more. Here's a good one. Frog pussy wants to know. God damn it.

Speaker C:

Read that to me again.

Speaker A:

Hold on. I'm going to have Ricky answer this one. Frog Pussy wants to know. Anyone has suggestions on where to order black piranha? My local fish store doesn't keep them, and I'm only running into sketchy websites. Ricky, where can frog pussy find piranha?

Speaker E:

That is you guys question exactly where.

Speaker A:

To get them, I bet.

Speaker C:

Legally. Legally, I can get them legally.

Speaker A:

Yeah, they're not illegal here.

Speaker C:

Black piranhas not in Minnesota, though.

Speaker A:

No, they're legal in Minnesota.

Speaker C:

That's what I'm saying. They're legal in Minnesota. But, like, California, Florida, none of the piranhas are.

Speaker A:

California, I'm pretty sure is legal.

Speaker D:

Okay, here's how you guys want to do this. If you guys live in states that they're illegal in quotation marks, here's how you do.

Speaker A:

The views and opinions of Adam L. Nazar do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the Aquarium Guys podcast. Continue.

Speaker D:

I love the legal disclaimer.

Speaker C:

You're welcome. You're going to jail by yourself. I'm way too cute to be in jail, I'll tell you that much. I'd be somebody's bitch in about 15 minutes.

Speaker D:

So here's how you do it. The only way to get black piranha and several other species of piranha, because I've actually had black piranha come in, and I've actually brought them in for people and sold them at my store in Minnesota. Now, this is Minnesota. The only way to do it is to have them brought in. And the only port of entry that will take them is Connecticut because they're not illegal in that port of entry. So you have to get them shipped. And I think they ship them from Peru. So from Peru they have to go to Mexico. And then from Mexico they get shipped to Connecticut. And then from Connecticut they can go to Minnesota or any inside United States where they're not illegal. Then from there you can just pick them up. So you have to go to a.

Speaker A:

Different state to get.

Speaker C:

But I'm sure there's somebody probably selling them on the Internet and stuff. But the problem with Prana, with shipping Prana is you got to buy them really small because it is impossible to sell. Get big ones. Just as a disclaimer, I've had adult black prana and I've had red belly Prana, and I would put my face in a red belly prana tank before I'd even put a net in a black prana, because the black pranas are so much more aggressive. I mean, if you drop a net in there, you don't put your hand in there because they'll go for your thumb, whereas a red belly Prana will just kind of cower in back. And if they do bite you, it's just kind of a defensive thing where they think that you're going to try to grab them. But when I used to bring in Prana, we would bring in 300 prana the size of your thumbnail. Anything bigger, they would go through the bag. And so this stuff comes in bagged with newspaper lighting, another bag of newspaper lighting, another bag of newspaper lighting. And the only way that they can ship adults is they'll put a plastic pail in there with the big piranha to ship it. But you're going to pay so much money in shipping and it's still probably going to be a poop show because if ups tips it over, you're going to be screwed.

Speaker D:

So I brought in a black one and they shipped it in a pail. In a bag? In a pail with. What the hell is that? Most potent, that yellow knockout juice.

Speaker C:

For shipping? Yeah, for shipping.

Speaker A:

It demolished the pail.

Speaker D:

I brought in some black ones and some gold ones because I had people specially request them and I sold them all really quick.

Speaker C:

The gold metallic ones are beautiful.

Speaker E:

Yeah, the gold ones were just beautiful.

Speaker D:

But the black one, it took a five gallon bucket and just beat the shit out of, like, you know, like chewed up, like a dog chewed it up and just destroyed it. It was amazing to see that from a piranha. And I'm like, that's like the heaviest dose that you can put in a water.

Speaker C:

Yeah. And the very few people, there's two or three people breeding piranha in the US and they're breeding them in concrete vats because they're so skinnish, they don't want to see you. And plus, if you get something aggressive, like a burlap prana, they will sit there and if not fed, they'll sit there and chew on the silicone until it leaks. So, yeah, it's a whole can of worms. If you want to start keeping Prana, everybody thinks it's going to be really cool. When I was in college, we had the red piranha and everybody put some goldfish in there. We'd all sit there and the goldfish would swim in there for four days. And when you come back the next day, there'd be a tail left when you weren't there. But a black piranha will see you come in the room and he'll knock on the glass, go, hey, come here.

Speaker A:

I got to ask you.

Speaker C:

Come here.

Speaker A:

Did a black piranha just like kick your ass and steal your lunch money growing up in school or like, what?

Speaker C:

No, I've actually got a scar right here, my finger, from a black piranha.

Speaker A:

It took like a quarter inch of your dick off. Is that.

Speaker C:

What if he did? It would be all gone.

Speaker E:

We're still talking about.

Speaker A:

Sure, sure.

Speaker C:

It's cold here in Minnesota. Give me a. Oh, that's it.

Speaker A:

We're having Ricky on more often. He has a good banter. Oh, should we do one more? I'm having too much fun to end this. One more. One more. Do it one more. All right, I'm going to find one more here. I'm scrolling, scrolling. Frog pussy. Had a good one there, though.

Speaker D:

I told you guys how to do it, so just do it that way.

Speaker C:

Yeah, it's just like what Adam was saying. If you want to hire a transhiper and all that bs, if you go on aquabid. Right now there's people selling crowntail guppies and I've been wanting some more and I've been looking for some more and they're selling them for $40 a pair. But you have to tranship them. And I checked into it and first of all, the guy that's selling them has got no good reviews. None whatsoever. And anyway, then by the time you land a pair of guppies, it's about $110 and good luck if they're dead. So if you're on aquabid, buyer beware. Stay away from anybody that doesn't have the USA flag on their little description because these guys that are from overseas are listing just a ton of really cool stuff that you're never going to get here. And when is a pair of guppies going to be worth $120? You get them here and they're not going to live anyway because the parameters over there are so different in your water and stuff. So just buyer beware.

Speaker A:

Okay, last one. Internal parasites. Dylan White wants to know. Hey, got a couple of neon blue akara with internal parasites. Just wondering what meds you guys would use that works best. I'm like, come on, brother. You can't just say that your fish has parasites and not tell us any more information. So I'm like, immediately picks and more information, please. I'm like, he has white poo. Not growing. Looks weird around the bum, this picture. I shit you not. Do you see it, Adam? Yep.

Speaker C:

This fish has a cold. And it's just snot.

Speaker A:

It's just a big old. It looks like, I don't know, Saran wrap coming out of its asshole. And it's just half the length of the fish. Just crunchy, crackery saran wrap.

Speaker C:

It's not hexamita. If it was hexamina, it would be white, black, white, black, white, black.

Speaker A:

Here's the real creepy part, right? He also says, also, merry Christmas at Rob's. Hope you're having a cracker. I'm like, what the hell does having a cracker mean? I mean, like, I. My wife, and she's white. Does that count?

Speaker C:

Wow. Maybe. Well, this is earlier. Maybe it's a reference to the cracker and cheese thing that I wanted you to do.

Speaker A:

You know what one of these people did? They helped me out. Apparently. I have to translate. This guy's like Australia or austrian or something, I don't know. And they had a chat countries.

Speaker D:

Robbie. Australia is way from Austria.

Speaker A:

The point is, I don't know where this guy's from.

Speaker C:

The Pissy Aquarius is going to give us a geography list.

Speaker A:

What this is, is in English is the point that Chat GPT. Someone dumped this in Chat GPT. And apparently it translates to that you're hoping you're having a good time. Having a cracker is having a good time. So they had to help me out with that one. Do you generally crack?

Speaker B:

It's also a Christmas thing that people.

Speaker A:

In other countries do.

Speaker B:

You take the two ends, you pull it apart. It's called a cracker.

Speaker A:

There's a prize in the middle.

Speaker B:

Whoever gets the longest piece gets the prize.

Speaker A:

I put a gif of it in the chat. Jesus.

Speaker E:

Your head out of your ass.

Speaker C:

Wow. Yeah. Get your head out of your ass, Rob.

Speaker A:

See, that's why I need you.

Speaker C:

So nobody answered the poor man's question.

Speaker A:

Oh, yeah. Back to the tinfoil or the foil out the ass. Yeah, I said Prazzipro.

Speaker C:

Do you think maybe it ate a piece of tinfoil off the tree?

Speaker F:

Actually, Hikari, who makes prazzipro, also has a new product called Intestipro that is for internal parasites specifically. And you just dose the water with know.

Speaker C:

And the problem I have with dosing the water for that stuff, I've got better luck where I've soaked it in bloodworms than they've ingested it because it gets way too watered out. If you put it in the water, I mean, it'll work. It's just going to take a long time.

Speaker F:

And that's where this new product comes in, guys.

Speaker C:

Ingested.

Speaker A:

Guys, we have this new product. Great product.

Speaker C:

Great.

Speaker A:

Just for intestinal parasites, right? We should feed it using the scientific, tried and true method of buttloading.

Speaker C:

Jesus.

Speaker F:

You're the only one that's done buttloading.

Speaker A:

You know what I'm saying?

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker F:

With an air tube.

Speaker C:

You need help?

Speaker A:

Grab your little creatures that you're going to feed the fish. Maybe it's shrimp, maybe it's a little amphipot or something. And buttload it like Adam likes.

Speaker D:

That's not me, that's you. Air tube up the ass.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

You are the guy. I'm saying buttload it with the medication, feed it to the fish, and then it won't shit out. Saran wrap. It'll be perfect.

Speaker F:

I'm sure the medication will go through the air tube.

Speaker C:

Yeah. With any type of medicine that you're buying, if you can just buy some frozen bloodworms, thaw them out in a small little bit of cup and buttload them. Put the medicine in the bloodworm, though, ingested them through their mouth and not their butthole. You are the great cornhole.

Speaker B:

Done it with freeze dried.

Speaker E:

Sorry, Jim.

Speaker A:

I was going to say I've done.

Speaker B:

It with freeze dried blood worms and that really soaks them up.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker E:

Which are already saturated.

Speaker C:

Yeah, that would work great, too.

Speaker E:

How about tube effects worms?

Speaker F:

I haven't tried it with tube effects.

Speaker C:

The dry ones, I think that would work, wouldn't it? I would assume anything. It probably will work with Flake, too, if they have to ingest it pretty quickly. And I've read a lot of reports and stuff about it. If it just floats around in the tank and they don't like it, doesn't taste well, it's not going to do you a damn bit of good. So it's kind of like getting your kids to take their medicine. If you can't buttload the medicine in your kids, it's not going to work. And that's why you shouldn't be a parent, Robbie.

Speaker A:

Wow.

Speaker C:

I seriously worry about you. I think that maybe you should get some help.

Speaker A:

I think that Ricky and I should.

Speaker C:

He'd be the only guy that would go to prison and be happy about it.

Speaker A:

I think that Ricky and I should get together. We should sell fish culture buttloading kits. That's what we should do. Just sell the tools to Buttload.

Speaker C:

Yeah, just a little tiny funnel to shove up the fish's ass.

Speaker A:

Just the syringes.

Speaker E:

Explain to that.

Speaker A:

Ricky. Thanks for joining us tonight, budy.

Speaker C:

Wow. I'm going to go shower. I just feel filthy.

Speaker A:

Hey, don't forget to drop that Costco lotion off for that 18 year old in your basement.

Speaker E:

Listen, it might be my cousin.

Speaker C:

No, I did not kidnap her. I'm rehoming her. I'm rehoming her.

Speaker A:

Okay, come on, guys. If you like what you like what you listen to, share with a friend. Find us on Patreon. Throw us a couple bucks. Discord also has a Patreon like thingy. We want to get Dalton paid for doing these.

Speaker C:

Do not call the police.

Speaker E:

Dalton's the MVP.

Speaker A:

Yeah, Dalton. Dalton's a real hero. He's got to put up with this shit unedited and has to do with this.

Speaker D:

How many f bombs are you gonna have to edit just from Jim in about two.

Speaker A:

Lotion.

Speaker C:

Here's one. There you go. Edit that.

Speaker A:

All right. And go to dot Co.

Speaker C:

There we go.

Speaker A:

I got it correct.

Speaker C:

Dsfish Co. And get your buttloading medicine.

Speaker A:

Find Derek at these Fish Co. In Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.

Speaker C:

He is not currently rehoming anyone from the mall. That's me.

Speaker A:

Until next time, thanks, guys, for listening to the podcast. Please go to your favorite place where podcasts are found, whether it be Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, wherever they can be found. Like subscribe. And make sure you get push notifications directly to your phone so you don't miss great content like this stuffed into every orifice.

Speaker D:

I'm sending him a baggie.

Speaker C:

Are you looking in the tank or are you looking at his testicles?

Speaker E:

You got to aim that sucker right.

Speaker C:

I'm not going to jail with you two assholes.

Speaker A:

I want to know what you do. Pants off on toilet.

Speaker C:

And you went, you know what I need a couple of Ritz crackers and some cheese. That would make a delicious sandwich, wouldn't it, Robbie, you f ing psycho. God damn it. You are the worst chops. God damn, you're weird. Why don't you just close the microwave door one time? Close the microwave door one time when you're using it, because I think it's taken away all the goddamn good brain cells that are left in your head.

Speaker A:

Hashtag organic glitter in the shitter.

Episode Notes

See a video of Ricky's bathroom-fishroom tour here: https://youtu.be/wyKxleklTjM

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